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question1t · Joined: 28 Oct 2006 Posts: 11 Location: london UK

ghosts and ghost haunting

A ghost is an alleged disembodied spirit of a dead person. Ghosts are often depicted as inhabiting haunted houses, especially houses where murders have occurred. Why some murder victims would stick around for eternity to haunt a place while others seem to evaporate is one of the great mysteries of the spirit world.

Many people report physical changes in haunted places, especially a feeling of a presence accompanied by temperature drop and hearing unaccountable sounds. They are not imagining things. Most hauntings occur in old buildings, which tend to be drafty. Scientists who have investigated haunted places account for both the temperature changes and the sounds by finding physical sources of the drafts, such as empty spaces behind walls or currents set in motion by low frequency sound waves (infrasound) produced by such mundane objects as extraction fans. Some think that electromagnetic fields are inducing the haunting experience.*

Some ghost experiences may be attributed to sleep paralysis. For example, the description given by Geoff Hutchison, a miner turned medium, is typical of sleep paralysis. He says he had his first paranormal experience while he was in the Army during the 1960s when he saw a figure: "It was just a man with a big black coat and a big wide-brimmed hat. He just stood there bent over me. I couldn't move my arms or legs and had to lie there."

Even if I provided plausible physical explanations for a million poltergeists [or ghosts] in a million different places at a million different times, there is always the possibility that the next one that pops up will be the real thing. So, those who believe in poltergeists, ghosts, and haunted houses can always take refuge in the fact that nobody ever has enough information to debunk every ghost story, and even if they did, the next one might prove the debunkers wrong!

As a skeptic, all I can say with confidence is that when one considers the requirements for a ghost story to be true, the most reasonable position is that there is a naturalistic explanation for all these stories, but we often do not or cannot have all the details necessary to provide that explanation. We must rely on anecdotal evidence, which is always incomplete and selective, and which is often passed on by interested, inexperienced, superstitious parties who are ignorant of basic physical laws. Thus, there will always be stories like the "Bell Witch" story that attract much attention, especially when made into movies, that will lead many people to think that maybe there is something to this one, even if all the other ghost stories are false. The "Bell Witch" is alleged to be "a sinister entity that tormented a family on Tennessee’s frontier between the years of 1817 and 1821."* The likelihood that we don't have all the evidence in this case is proportionate to the number of years that have passed since the events allegedly took place.

If one is selective enough, one can confirm just about any hypothesis. And, as the history of research into psychic phenomena has shown, the brighter one is the easier it is to rationalize and find reasons to support one's beliefs. Witness Debra Blum's latest book, The Ghost Hunters. This former science writer provides a selective history of psychical research to support the view that maybe some of these stories are for real. After all, we can't prove they're not.

It is said that ghosts like to work in the dark because it's harder for people to see them than in broad daylight where their invisibility is more visible. It's also easier to deceive and scare people at night because they can't see what's going on. It's usually cooler and breezier at night, too, and both those elements assist the ghost in producing scary sounds and movements. Ghosts don't like to work in conditions where people can easily see what they are doing because then people would see them for what they are rather than for what they imagine them to be. By appearing only in the dark they can maintain their mysteriousness better. Besides, ghosts have found that many people are afraid of the dark and that fear makes their work much easier.

There are numerous groups of paranormal investigators that spend their spare time investigating allegedly haunted places. They arrive with coffee pots, flashlights, tape recorders, EMF detectors, video cameras with night vision, metal detectors, and other devices that were not designed to detect ghosts and therefore have no instructions on how to use them for that purpose. (I know. There is no equipment designed for this purpose. How could there be?) The equipment looks scientific, but does that make the investigation scientific? I'd say you're about as likely to detect a ghost with a Sony camcorder as you are to get the truth out of a house plant by hooking it up to a polygraph.

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question1t · Joined: 28 Oct 2006 Posts: 11 Location: london UK

holding a séance

A séance is a spiritualist meeting to receive communications from the dead. Usually, a group is led by a medium in a very dark room (to make deception easier) who, often with an assistant, produces noises and voices, and moves things about the room, insisting these are caused by spirits of the dead.
WELL THAT'S WHAT I THINK.
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Grenuychik · Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 19 Location: USA

I have had a number of extremely odd experiences, which I have been unable to find an explanation for. However I am genuinely interested in other folks opinions and suggestions as to what else could have happened.
So here goes;- . Not only did I experience what seemed to be the 'ghost' of my dead friend, but he appeared to still be able to show 'emotion' and made it clear he was 'pissed off' with me.

I met Tim at work when I was 20 and he was 26 - he was a Flight Officer with the US AIR FORCE. We were never 'boyfriend/girlfriend' (apart from one drunken fumble in the early days which we soon laughed about and never tried again) but we hit it off from the moment we met, had such a laugh together...he was a silly sod with a filthy sense of humour - and we also shared a lot of heartache over our respective love affairs, and were generally great pals and saw each other frequently until he was promoted and moved bases away from my hometown. We kept in touch by phone, met up now and again and he came to my wedding etc, but I had not heard from him for a while when I had a phone call from a distraught mutual friend family friend one night in 1992 to tell me Tim had died very suddenly while abroad, in a road accident. By this time I was married and had a child, my son was 4 years old.

After the funeral, on a beautiful day in august, I was sitting in my back garden thinking about him and the fun we had, and I remember thinking 'Oh Tim, I'm so sorry..I wish you were still around' and I was suddenly prodded in the bust! Seriously, I don't know how else to describe it, but it was a real 'jab' as if to say 'I am still here' and it is just what he would have done when he was alive.

Months later, when I had stopped thinking about him at least once a day, I had another really strange experience. In order to tell this I have to mention two things. My son at the time was into 'Power Rangers', and he had a set of walkie talkies. If you pressed a button on one of the units while the other was also switched on, it would emit this high pitched 'screech' until you pressed the button on the other unit to reply. We also had a big drawer in the bottom of the unit in our living room, and everything went in there when I was tidying up in a hurry....kids toys, newspapers...(once found a rotting egg and bacon sandwich in there but that is another story) ...

Anyway, I was lying in my bed one night about 11pm, my son had been in bed since 8pm, and my husband was fast asleep. I was dozing, and suddenly heard the unmistakeable sound of this Power Ranger walkie talkie, which only ever happened when someone pressed the button on one of the units. I assumed my son was awake and playing with his toys, so I went through to his bedroom, and he was fast asleep. The screech was coming from the living room....from the bottom drawer of the unit. I opened the drawer, and a photograph (not in a frame) of Tim which had once been propped up on the unit and must have dropped in, or been knocked in literally shot out of the drawer and fluttered up into the air. Please suspend disbelief as I tell you this - I promise this is true, and I have no reason to lie. I don't believe it any more than you do probably, but it really did happen. It was almost as if he was saying 'Hey! You've forgotten all about me, bloody photo shoved in a drawer'.

The really weird thing about it is that although one half of the walkie talkie set was in the drawer, the other half had gone missing and never turned up again...and it never made the noise again (it couldn't, without the other half could it ?.) There were no kids in the immediate vicinity from memory with walkie talkie toys but I guess someone up the street could have been using one somewhere maybe...or some other item of equipment that made it screech like that out of the blue ?? but wouldnt they work in a different way ?

I don't really think I can be talked out of anything..other than it was the ghost of my friend.. These experiences are after all mine, and I guess only I know what happened and how I felt.

I like to look at these things from all angles before I dismiss or accept them. However, I also have to say that personally I think there is more to heaven and earth than we will ever understand or science can explain.

question1t · Joined: 28 Oct 2006 Posts: 11 Location: london UK

Quote:
Originally Posted by Grenuychik
Not only did I experience what seemed to be the 'ghost' of my dead friend, but he appeared to still be able to show 'emotion' and made it clear he was 'pissed off' with me.

Err, no. What you "saw" was a photograph fly up in the air. Assuming that this is the ghost of your dead friend displaying emotion towards you is stretching credulity to the extreme.

Quote:
I was dozing

Quote:
but it really did happen.

'nuff said.
_________________
im a demon white van Driver, LOL

Grenuychik · Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 19 Location: USA

chiefsceptic · Joined: 29 Dec 2006 Posts: 11 Location: USA

POOR GIRL HE MEANS:-

Those walkie-talkies can pick upthings like baby intercoms or maybe the battery was running out on the one in the drawer?

The jab was probably coincidence. Sometimes we get those feelings but if a person is thinking of a deceased person at the time, then that person might think it has something to do with it. But why should he wait for the time you were thinking of him?

If it had been anything other than his photo would you have assumed it was him? Or just put it down to a natural occurrence?

Nevertheless, there are plenty of mundane explanations for a photograph jumping out of a drawer that do not involve the ghost of a dead relative. When combined with your admission that you had been dozing (and therefore could have been half-asleep at the time, or even dreamt the entire thing), the evidence of paranormal activity is not very strong.

Your assumption that the walkie-talkie cannot make a noise without the other one is also incorrect, as i 'll point out. These devices operate on a fairly narrow range of frequencies and it is quite possible that a similar device operated in the vicinity could trigger activity from your walkie-talkie, has i explain later

If the photo was knocked into the drawer by accident you say , it is possible that it was stuck between the top of the drawer and the horizontal bit just above (whatever that is called - I know nothing about furniture). If it was in that position, it would naturally shoot out when you opened the drawer. I often have things shoot out of drawers when I open them - that's because I stuff too much in them. ( if you know what i mean?)

Quote:
Originally Posted Grenuychik
There were no babies in the immediate vicinity from memory (for the baby monitor theory) but I guess someone up the street could have been using one...or some other item of equipment that made it screech like that out of the blue.

Also all walkie-talkies, baby monitors and similar are just radios. The more professional radios, used in sports for example, can select from several different channels to avoid precisely the sort of cross-talk that you describe. Cheap radios like toy walkie-talkies can't, they will just be stuck on one channel that will be common to many devices. A radio you have picking up a signal from another radio is not in the least unusual. All it means is that another one working on the same frequency. A good example of this would be American Pie 2 (if you haven't seen it, don't), where a conversation between the main characters is picked up by the police, truckers, childrens toys and various other radios.

There are plenty of other less likely possibilities, that could result in a radio pulse on the same frequency, such as a power surge, military tests, solar flares and so on. And of course, it is always possible that it was simply the lost radio landing on its transmit button as fell wherever it was that you couldn't find it again.

SORRY BUT WE DONT THINK IT WAS YOUR DEAD FRIEND !!!
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Grenuychik · Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 19 Location: USA

Ok GUYS,
Well like I have said iv'e had loads of extremely odd experiences, which I have been unable to find an explanation for. However thank you for your opinions, BUT I STILL THINK IT MAY be the 'ghost' of my dead friend,

Blackbird · Joined: 17 Mar 2008 Posts: 119

I am not a sceptic Grenuychik, but the jab in the boob could be auto suggestion. In other words you were thinking of Tim and he had a filthy but fun sense of humour, so your mind created the jab as you still want him with you.
It could also be that as you were thinking deeply about him, you linked into him and he prodded you to let you know he was there.
The photograph, I think could be Tim. Things do not fly out of a drawer and up in the air unless you had a sudden gust of wind that swept through your house.
I have seen a heavy spoon levitate out of a drawer and fly in the air.
The walkie talkies I have no explanation for, but I will say, that is is not unusual for spirit/ghosts whatever you want to call them to communicate like this.
They have according to some, made phones ring, tapped on walls and doors, turned taps on etc..

You know how you felt Grenuychik when you had these experiences and your first instinct is normally the right one, so you need to go with that.

Would love to read of other experiences you have had.